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Shannan Gilbert
Born Shannan Maria Gilbert on October 24, 1986 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania died May 1, 2010 in Gilgo Beach, New York was an American escort involved in the Gilgo Beach Murders. Her disappearance and subsequent death led police to discover ten fully skeletal bodies along Ocean Parkway. The discovery was the largest in Gilgo Beach and New York history. Only five of the ten bodies have been identified, and two unidentified bodies, one of an Asian male (believed to be a transsexual based on him wearing female clothing when found), and a mother with her 24 month old child still in her arms had composite sketches drawn of them, which were released to the public. Some of the bodies had been deceased and full decomposed in the upwards of ten to fifteen years and all ten were believed to be sex workers. Shannan's case is unrelated to the other ten victims because she was found deceased in a marsh a few yards away from Ocean Parkway, and is believed by investigatigators to have drowned; although it is unknown due to the condition in which her body was found. it is a small possibility that she was strangled but cannot be determined because bones in her neck are missing. Shannan had been missing for 19 months before being found. She was last seen running into the brush by her driver only leaving her "footprints in the sand". She knocked on two people's doors in the Oak Beach housing community, with one person answering only to have Shannan run off screaming "they're going to kill me!" In 2015 the family of Shannan got a private autopsy done by famed Dr. Michael Baden, his findings were 'consitant with homicidal strangulation' there was also a hole in one of the bones in Shannan's neck, suggesting a form of torture. Shannan got into the escorting business at first with an agency after a friend told her how much money she could make per client (est. $250.00/hr.). She began in 2007 at age 21. She was only jailed twice, once in a sting operation at a hotel in Jersey City and the second time for solicitation. She met her boyfriend through escorting, him being her original driver. They dated until her death in 2010. Approximately in 2009 Shannan and a new driver, Michael Pak left the agency to work together through Craigslist. Shannan worked a few times a week earning $250.00 an hour. Michael was her driver but acted as her bodyguard too. He got half of her earnings. Michael wasn't present during Shannan's appointments with clients but she would call him when needed. Shannan graduated from High School at age 16, after "cramming" two years of schooling into one year. After graduating Shannan worked as a snack prepper at a senior center, hostess at Applebee's, and a front desk manager at a hotel until entering the sex industry in 2007. She lived in an apartment with her boyfriend in Jersey City, often visiting her family in Ellenville, New York where she was raised. Despite earning a fair living Shannan had plans of leaving the sex industry a few months prior to her death. She was taking online college coarses in communications, going on singing auditions in Manhattan, and had dreams of becoming a writer. An autopsy was done in late 2011, but results came back "inconclusive" or labeled as "death by misadventure", since it was believed she was disoriented while running through Oak Beach after maybe being slipped something at her last client's home. Her case remains open and police are still taking tips.